AAN-UIT (literally ON-OFF) is a small specialist lighting design company based in Utrecht. It is a young company that produces designs by emerging designers in the best traditions of Dutch furniture and industrial design. Headed up by Marc Th. van der Voorn, who has designed most of the lights currently in production, AAN-UIT also produces designs by Castor Bours and Viktor Harmens.

One encounters a certain pared down simplicity and directness in the designs of AAN-UIT, a sensibility of no-fuss clean lines that we readily associate with Dutch design approaches, particularly after Modernism. But, the designs of AAN-UIT are most certainly not limited to a doctrine of undecorated form and function: we also find a certain elegance that harks back to the birth of particular traditions in the decorative arts in the Netherlands, that place in which domesticity and the very notion of the modern household were formed in the sixteenth century. And, of course, here and there we encounter that quirky visual humour that is also strongly associated with Dutch design in more recent decades; a marker that design can be aesthetically pleasing without being overly serious or inhuman.

Marc Th. van der Voorn (1974) studied Interior Architecture at the Minerva Art Academy, Groningen. In addition to running Aan/Uit he undertakes external design projects for studios such as Perlei and continues his research into design and materials through activities such as research periods at the prestigious European Ceramic Work Centre, den Bosch.

Castor Bours attended the Design Academy Eindhoven. He focuses primarily on conceptual and experimental design projects and is also one half of the design practice, Heeren WC.

Viktor Harmens studied Industrial Product Design in Arnhem and Nijmegen. Under his Studio HARmens label, his area of specialism is the kinds of products that one encounters daily in office buildings or around the home; furniture, equipment and fittings.

During the cold dark nights this winter, designs by Aan/Uit will be visible to the passing public through the windows of NL, the Dutch Cultural Pop-Up Space in Riding House Street in Fitzrovia. When the daylight fades all too early, Aan/Uit’s lights come on, providing a reassuring and pleasing beacon in the dark.

For more information about Aan/Uit and its designs, please check out www.aanuit.nl

NL- The Dutch Cultural Pop-Up Space is located at 40-42 Riding House Street, London, W1.

Designs by Ain/Uit will be illuminated each day from 16:30 until midnight.